


mermaid frappuccino

by Ludella



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Alternate Universe - Pirate, Fluff, M/M, can i make it anymore obvious, he was a mermaid, he was a pirate, hubert still loves coffee, mermaid!hubert, pirate!ferdinand, romantic rendezvous
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-21
Updated: 2019-08-21
Packaged: 2020-09-23 13:48:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20341132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ludella/pseuds/Ludella
Summary: After receiving help during their last battle at sea from their unorthodox ally, Ferdinand decides to repay Hubert's assistance with a gift.But what do you get for a mermaid? And not only that, but the most feared sea creature that lives in many a sailor's legends?





	mermaid frappuccino

**Author's Note:**

> if this fic can inspire at least one person to create more mermaid!hubert content then i can die happily. i want every au of this pairing. every iteration.
> 
> anyways enjoy

Edelgard’s newest “help” isn’t going over very well with the rest of the crew. She said their new ally would be their trump card in the war with the ship of Faerghus. Their turf war has been going on for five years now and didn’t show any sign of ending soon, so nobody posed any issue with her enlisting new help.

They just didn’t expect… Hubert.

Nobody could’ve expected Hubert.

And what kind of name is Hubert anyways, Ferdinand wonders as he walks along the shore. Shouldn’t the merpeople be giving their children mysterious, fae-like names they had in all the tales? Something that flowed off the tongue like honey, like an enchantment, or something that reflected their beautiful civilization, not… Hubert. It’s a name that suggests normalcy. Plain. As human and boring as it gets.

It couldn’t be less accurate. Ferdinand slips into the cave they agreed on, out of sight of the rest of the crew who are preparing the ship in town before they set off again in a few days. Edelgard doesn’t question why Ferdinand slips away with a simple excuse, having known her long enough to avoid anything that would actually make her suspicious.

The cave is actually rather shallow, Ferdinand finds. Although the water is deep, the land does not go very far back, just enough that anyone at the mouth of the cave wouldn’t be able to see or hear whoever was inside. He casts a shadow on the inside as soon as he steps through the entrance, eyes scanning the water for a dark shadow.

“Hubert?” he calls quietly even though he made sure nobody had followed him.

“I’m right here.”

Ferdinand jumps. He certainly hadn’t been in front of him before, and he hadn’t heard a noise. The ability to move so silently in water is one of the reasons he’s so useful as an ally, he supposes, as much as it might frighten him to be the one caught off guard. Hubert is wading in the water just a few feet from where Ferdinand is standing on the edge of a large rock, submerged from his shoulders down.

Hubert turns in the water and starts drifting back to the inside of the cave. “This way. Our voices can still be heard from outside.”

It’s a bit unfair how, in here, Hubert is able to swim freely through the water in a beeline to the back of the cave but Ferdinand has to climb and jump over jagged rocks. This place has clearly never been inhabited or used by humans, though he thinks in the back of his mind that might be why Hubert picked it out. It’s close enough to the town to detract other merpeople, but just hard enough to maneuver to keep other humans from going too far inside.

Surprisingly, the farther they stray from the mouth of the cave, it doesn’t get harder to see as Ferdinand expected. There’s a dip in the middle of the cave where it reaches its darkest point just before growing brighter again until it’s just as light as it is outside during sunset. Ferdinand hadn’t been able to see any light in the back of the cave when he first entered, only where it got pitch black at the very end. Just as he looks down in the water to ask Hubert for an explanation, he understands.

A number of glowing fish have started swimming alongside the mermaid, leaving streams of blue light behind them as they move silently through the water. It lights up the water that had been too dark to see through earlier, giving Ferdinand a good look at the mysterious aquatic features of Hubert’s that have become the inspiration for many sailors’ nightmares.

Besides his unusually pale skin and the slits of gills on his neck, Hubert looks no different from any other human swimming through the water at a glance. It’s only if he uses his arms to push the water back could one see the jet black fins protruding from his forearms. They’re sharp and jagged, looking like a number of daggers attached up to his elbow with curtains of coal in between them. That same inky black color covers his entire lower half, his tail longer than Ferdinand is tall. With an almost iridescent green tint to his scales, Hubert appears as if he was crafted from a pirate’s legend.

The more they meet, though, Ferdinand thinks there might be a little bit more to him than just the monster their crew thinks he is. He stops at the shore at the back of the cave where the land becomes a little flatter, giving Ferdinand room to walk around and sit by the edge of the water. He removes his boots before dipping his legs in the water and sighs leisurely at the cold temperature working wonders on his sore feet and legs.

“You’re injured,” Hubert says, and Ferdinand is momentarily shocked that he could see the wound covered by his pants. He looks down to see if his clothes are town before recalling how merpeople and sharks alike can find their prey through the smell of blood in the water.

“It’s minor, nothing that won’t heal by the time we’re out on the water next,” Ferdinand says with a casual wave. “It would be much worse if you hadn’t saved me the way you did.”

Hubert’s response is immediate. “Letting you die would inconvenience her highness.”

“Yes, well, true as that may be, I still wanted to express my thanks.” He watches Hubert blink curiously, just barely wading closer to the edge as Ferdinand retrieves the bag he’d brought with him. 

“...that’s why you wanted to meet?” He appears to be absolutely floored by the notion and, right, not many of their crew have been that kind to Hubert, have they? Ferdinand can’t really blame them, seeing as Hubert himself isn’t that kind of friendly with any of them. But they’ll still cheer when they see the merman blasting holes in their enemies ships.

“It is,” Ferdinand answers. “This may seem silly, given what it is, but I recall you mentioning something about it during our last conversation…”

Before Hubert can ask, Ferdinand is pulling a small canister from his bag. He screws off the lid and holds it out for Hubert to look inside. 

His eyes widen imperceptibly. “...coffee beans?”

Ferdinand chuckles with a nod. “You said that you discovered it when inspecting an abandoned merchant ship, didn’t you?”

Hubert’s lips curl inside his mouth. His tail waves leisurely in the water beneath him, still illuminated by the backlight of those luminescent fish gathered in the pool here. He looks quite different with the low light of the fish as opposed to direct sunlight where his details are harsh and contrasting or the moonlight where he is nothing but a shadowy beast. The blue light that comes from the local wildlife is somewhere in between, making Hubert look a bit… kinder? No, not that. More approachable, maybe. Handsome, certainly, much like those tales Ferdinand was told as a boy of bewaring pretty women in the water who hide their lower bodies. 

“I cannot… drink this, you understand.”

“You told Edelgard you enjoyed it though? I distinctly remember you saying so.” Ferdinand draws the canister back to his chest and shakes its contents around. He had spent a good while in the market today trying to find coffee of actual quality and not just whatever was cheapest. It’s rather hard to track down with tea being the drink of choice in these parts, especially since Ferdinand himself isn’t a coffee person. “What did you do with it?”

Hubert crosses his arms, wading close enough to lean back on the edge of the rock near where Ferdinand is perched. “I didn’t know what it was when I picked it up. All I did was open the can and it flowed out into the water. It had a pleasant aroma.” He points at the can in Ferdinand’s hands. “It wasn’t like this, though, it was ground.”

With a hum, Ferdinand tilts the container towards him and watches Ferdinand reach a clawed hand inside to pick up a few of the beans. “I didn’t even consider that… My apologies, Hubert, I can go and retrieve a grinder to--”

Hubert closes his hands around the coffee beans in a fist. When he uncurls his fingers, they’ve been crushed into tiny pieces.

It isn’t quite as efficient as a grinder, but Ferdinand is impressed anyways, mouth falling open in a silent ‘oh.’

“Does it… smell alright?”

Ferdinand really doesn’t know what he’s doing.

Perhaps it was stupid to buy coffee for a mermaid in the first place, but it’s the only thing he’s ever heard Hubert say he enjoys outside of the war! It was his only lead for a gift! All Ferdinand wanted to do was thank him for assisting him in their most recent battle and maybe get to know him a bit better. They meet every now and then in secret to discuss how best to assist Edelgard and compare methods, and when Ferdinand discovered that Hubert isn’t such a terrifying creature after all, well, of course he wants to make friends!

He waits for Hubert to lift the grains to his nose, but instead, he drops them into the water. For just a moment, Ferdinand feels his heart sink with them before he watches Hubert lower himself into the water as well, submerging to his nose so the gills on his neck and ears are covered. He keeps his eyes closed and a few bubbles rise to the surface as he exhales the air in his lungs.

Ferdinand isn’t sure how he should be reacting, momentarily wondering if he should take his feet out of the water, too. It’s been a good minute since he last washed them, and his bloody wound is in the water as well…

“It’s nice,” Hubert says when he comes back up, a satisfied smile on his face. Ferdinand balks, surprised, as he stares at the coffee grains floating in the water.

“...this works?” he asks, and Hubert nods.

“Yes, I’d say it’s much better quality than the other, too.”

It  _ actually _ worked? He’s dumbfounded, a smile slowly rising to his face before he’s laughing, loud enough to completely defeat the point of hiding back here. Hubert doesn’t seem to mind, given they aren’t talking about anything serious or secretive today, and he rolls his eyes as he leans against the edge of the rock.

“What’s so funny, petty noble?” he asks, though the usual venom in his words is missing. Or maybe Ferdinand just doesn’t mind it anymore.

“Nothing, nothing--we are just so different, aren’t we?” 

He reaches into the container to pull a few more of the beans out. Hubert’s eyes narrow for just a second when he pulls out his dagger, watching carefully as Ferdinand uses the blade like a knife to chop the beans finely on the rock between them. He’s so focused that he doesn’t realize Hubert has disappeared until the mermaid returns, handing him a fist-sized rock from the water. Ferdinand smiles as he takes it and begins to grind away at the bits of coffee beans on the ground.

“I never thought about how you all can smell just about anything in the water,” he says casually.

Hubert takes a few coffee beans of his own to repeat the process, using another rock to roll over them himself. “Everyone only thinks about how we might use the scent of blood to hunt, though they aren’t wrong.” It’s one of the many reasons they’re so vilified. As soon as someone was injured and a drop of blood hit the water, their ship would soon be swarmed with horrid, shrieking monsters, clawing holes into the helm to drag each sailor down to feast--or so says legend.

Ferdinand doesn’t bat an eye and nods along. “Like my wound just now, right. Does it not ruin the taste--er, the smell of the coffee for you?”

“No. Blood is appetizing to our kind. It adds... flavor.”

Ferdinand looks between his leg and Hubert’s face only to find himself already being watched by piercing green eyes. Mermaids hunting humans specifically isn’t completely unfounded, but Hubert himself was the one to tell them it isn’t their preferred method of feeding. They act more like vultures, swooping in when humans are at war with each other to feed on the remains. He’s never seen Hubert eat any of the fallen soldiers after battle, but it wouldn’t surprise him if he ever had. Especially with how he’s looking at Ferdinand now.

Before he can feel his face go warm, Ferdinand uses a dry finger to clean the edge of his dagger and gathers the coffee grounds in one pile. With the side of the blade he sweeps the grains off the rock and straight into the water, watching as it spreads downwards in a cloud of dark, rich brown. 

Hubert sinks back down into the water with a pleased hum that sounds more mer than human. He recognizes the sound from tales of sailors being tricked by fancy sea women, one of the first red flags a seaman can use to distinguish a mermaid trying to attract her prey. The sound would send chills down sailors backs with how oddly inhuman it is, eerie and uncanny in how it doesn’t suit the pretty face it comes from.

Ferdinand thinks it almost sounds like a purr. He just stops himself from reaching out to pet his head, suddenly wanting to feel if their hair is the same texture, too.

“Thank you, Ferdinand,” he says when he resurfaces, and Ferdinand thinks his smile might be a little more genuine than usual. “This is… a surprisingly thoughtful gift.”

Seeing as the brown in the water is spreading sufficiently, Ferdinand tightly seals the lid of the can once more and sets it on the rock behind Hubert. “Of course, it’s the least I can do to show my appreciation. Next time I’ll bring a grinder so it’s a bit easier.”

“Next time you thank me for saving you in battle?” Hubert asks, mischief in his voice.

Ferdinand kicks his legs in the water with a good-natured roll of his eyes. “Surely we’re on good enough terms to meet outside of business or anything special now, yes?”

“Are we?”

A wet hand suddenly stops Ferdinand’s leg in place, making him jump in surprise at the unexpected touch. He sputters in confusion, and if he were anyone else he might fear being dragged down by the mermaid and eaten right here. Instead his first thought is more along the lines of oh, I was presumptuous assuming he wanted to be friends and annoyed him!

But Hubert doesn’t drag him down, and his touch isn’t cruel or unkind. Even with the threat of those dark claws on the ends of his fingers, he’s careful as his hands search the back of Ferdinand’s calf until the human winces. He glances up at his face and covers the spot he’d brushed over with an open palm.

Ferdinand wants to ask what he’s doing, but the words catch in his throat as he feels a surge of magic rush through Hubert’s hand and into the wound on the back of his leg. He clamps his mouth shut to not disturb him and instead watches Hubert’s face, serious and focused on his work. Like this, those sharp facial features of his that sailors would call fiendish are simply fine. His eyes that others would recount as being a snake’s are bright. Even the fins on the backs of his arms are handsome, floating lazily in the water without any need to spread themselves as a threat.

When Hubert retracts his hand, Ferdinand immediately lifts his leg to feel for himself. The gash that had been bleeding openly just this afternoon is scarred over. It doesn’t even hurt to press.

Ferdinand smiles and watches Hubert finish grinding the beans he’d picked out and sweeps them into the water around him, submerging himself again with his back to Ferdinand.

“I thought the blood added flavor,” Ferdinand teases.

Hubert looks back at him with a brow quirked, a smile rising from the water to speak. “Don’t tempt me now.”

Throwing his head back, Ferdinand laughs, the sound reverberating off the walls of the cave and onto the beach outside where no one else is listening.

**Author's Note:**

> hmu on twitter where i rt a lot of fire emblem [@dreisang](https://twitter.com/dreisang)


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